Margaret.
Bene.
Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, deserve well
at my hands, by helping me to the speech of
Beatrice.
Marg.
Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my
beauty?
-- 554 --
Bene.
In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living
shall come over it; for in most comely truth thou deservest it.
Marg.
To have no Man come over me? why, shall I always
keep below stairs?
Bene.
Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it
catches.
Marg.
And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit,
but hurt not.
Bene.
A most manly wit Margaret, it will not hurt a woman;
and so I pray thee call Beatrice; I give thee the bucklers.
Marg.
Give us the swords, we have bucklers of our own.
Bene.
If you use them Margaret, you must put in the pikes
with a vice, and they are dangerous weapons for maids.
Marg.
Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who I think hath
legs.
[Exit Margaret.
Bene.
And therefore will come. [Sings.] The God of love that
sits above, and knows me, and knows me, how pitiful I deserve, I
mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good swimmer,
Troilus the first employer of pandars, and a whole book full of
these quondam carpet-mongers whose names yet run smoothly in
the even road of a blank verse, why they were never so truly
turn'd over and over, as my poor self in love; marry I cannot
shew it in rhime; I have try'd, I can find out no rhime to lady
but bady, an innocents rhime; for scorn, horn, a hard rhime;
for school, fool, a babling rhime; very ominous endings; no, I
was not born under a rhiming planet, for I cannot woo in festival
terms.
-- 555 --
George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].
